


Return of Hope

by TrulyMightyPotato



Series: Welcome to the Dark Side [3]
Category: Star Wars, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: it's hard to research some of this stuff, probable inaccuracies about technology, so I improvised
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:24:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9495638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrulyMightyPotato/pseuds/TrulyMightyPotato
Summary: When the crew of the Septic goes missing, Wiishu and Mandy investigate and begin to uncover quite a few secrets.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PurrtlePuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurrtlePuff/gifts).



When Wiishu didn't get her regular message from Jack, she got the feeling something bad had happened. 

No, that was ridiculous. Sometimes things came up -- a negotiation deal took longer than normal, he'd had to stop and fix something, or he'd slept longer than he anticipated. Jack was fine.

When she still hadn't gotten a message six hours later, she started wondering if her feeling had been right. 

When she opened her door to find Jack's mother standing there, she just about exploded from nerves. 

"Have you gotten any news from Jack?" Wiishu asked a few minutes later, after the two had gotten settled comfortably. 

Mrs. McLoughlin shook her head. "I was hoping you had."

Wiishu shook her head. "Not in almost a week. Mandy hasn't gotten anything from Bob, either."

"Anything from Wade or Molly?" Wiishu had the uncomfortable feeling she knew the answer to that.

Mrs. McLoughlin shook her head. "Just the other day his mother asked me if I'd heard anything. It's not like them to not contact us for so long."

Wiishu frowned. "What about Molly's family?"

"I haven't met them. I've only met her once."

Wiishu paused. "I think I have their contact information. I'll see if I can talk to them and find out."

\-----

While Molly’s parents and sister didn’t have any answers for Wiishu, they let her and Mandy into a private docking station. Apparently Molly had a personal ship she stored there.

“It’s really scratched up.” Wiishu noted, giving the ship a good lookover as Mandy did her math magic on the ship’s computer.

“It’s got a lot of use on it, too.” Mandy said. “I’m looking at the logs now.” Mandy scrolled through the digital records, frowning more and more the farther back she got. 

Wiishu looked at the dust on the underside of the wings. It must be heavy metals to not have burned off while entering the atmosphere. What planet had those in dust that could be caught on the underside of Molly’s ship -- the  _ Foxtrot _ , as it was registered. 

“The most recent travel log is to a system of gas planets, getting back here just days before leaving with Jack.” Mandy frowned. “Molly’s notes say she went alone, doing a research run, but her life support says there were two of them in the ship. I wonder who went with her.”

“It couldn’t have been Wade.” Wiishu turned her eyes to another part of the ship. “He was helping Jack that entire time.”

Mandy simply shook her head, then paused and tilted her head. “What was she hiding?”

Wiishu looked up from a rather suspicious set of scratches running over one of the  _ Foxtrot’s _ engines. “What’s wrong?”

“She has a lot of altered logs.” Mandy said as Wiishu climbed the stairs into the ship. “They look normal on the surface, but there’s all sort of hidden data here that she either missed or left as a clue.” Mandy frowned, scrolling to another log. “It’s here, too. She has a log that says she and Wade were taking a trip around the system, but the  _ Foxtrot _ never actually left the docking station.”

Wiishu dropped into the cockpit next to Mandy, looking at the logs. “They were gone those two weeks, though.”

Mandy nodded. “Yeah, but they didn’t take this ship anywhere.”

Wiishu frowned, turning her attention to the inside of the cockpit while Mandy continued scrolling through the logs. The cockpit had clearly gone under a lot of modifications from its original construction. Not too surprising -- most private ships were modified in some way or another. Jack had done a bit of it to the  _ Septic _ , even. Wiishu had helped him from time to time with repairing those modifications.

Not everything here looked like either Molly or Wade could have gotten their hands on it legally. They were either discontinued, custom-made with high-quality parts, or simply very very expensive.

So how did these things come to be in and on Molly’s ship?

“That’s ... impossible.” Mandy frowned at the logs.

“I’m not following.” Wiishu said.

“The first of the altered logs is three years ago.” Mandy shook her head. “That’s longer than I’ve even known her. She’s been hiding something this entire time?”

“That’s not impossible.” Wiishu pointed out.

“No, that’s not the impossible part.” Mandy pointed to a line of text. “This is her personal log, just a few days before that. It’s a mission log -- she says how she took an assignment... you know what, let’s play it. I want to hear this instead of reading it. Maybe it will give us a clue as to what happened.”

Wiishu hesitated, then nodded. They needed all the clues they could get. Molly was sure to forgive them for it later. Or they could just never tell her they got into her ship’s computer in the first place.

_ “Okay, so I just accepted a really weird job offer.” _ Molly’s voice sounded musing -- and after not hearing it for over three months, Wiishu found herself hooked on every word.  _ “I probably shouldn’t have, but the guy was so desperate. He was nice, too, and that’s always a plus. I’m not sure he’s entirely sane, since he wants to go weeks across the galaxy to follow coordinates he found on his bed -- apparently someone broke into his apartment and left them there.” _ Recording-Molly let out a sigh.  _ “If someone had broken into my apartment and left coordinates on my bed, no matter the message accompanying it, I wouldn’t be following them no matter what. _

_ “As I said though, this guy is desperate. After I’d accepted the job and dared to ask him more questions, he said he’d gone to his friend’s funeral recently, but that the person in the message was that same friend. And, no, it’s not a long-lost twin. I asked. So now I’ve got to stock up for a month’s journey, and this guy might be absolutely insane. Except, he showed me the recording. It’s a hologram -- I can’t see anything fake about it, but it does explain why this guy is so willing to go with a stranger so far away. _

_ “Oh, I should probably give details and stuff. Our destination and travel route is already in the computer. But the guy who hired me, he’s in law enforcement somehow? I don’t think he’s a cop. Maybe he’s a lawyer of some kind. Anyway, his name is Wade Barnes. He says his friend in the hologram is Mark Fischbach.”  _

Wiishu’s head snapped up, only to meet Mandy’s equally astonished gaze.

What?

\-----

“We were supposed to get our messages when they reached here.” Wiishu looked at the star map, pointing to a particular spot -- she had the  _ Septic _ ’s planned route tracked on it. It was the farthest point of the trip, and marked the planet where Jack would drop off most of his shipment and pick up stuff for the way back. “We never did -- and still haven’t -- so I’m going to assume they never made it there.”

Mandy nodded. “Sounds reasonable.”

“We did get their messages the week before, when they were here, so they definitely reached here.” Wiishu pointed again, this time at a space station. “Which means something went wrong somewhere in here.”

The area of interest was relatively small, when compared to the overall trip, but it was going to take a very long time to search for clues and stuff. For one, they had to actually get out there, and then they had to hope one of the nearby planets or moons or asteroids or whatever had some indication of what had happened left on them.

“We’re going to be moving faster than they did.” Mandy pointed out.

They were taking the  _ Foxtrot _ . Her family didn’t care, and it would save Molly the costs of keeping the ship docked for an extended period of time.

Most everything unnecessary had been taken out of the ship already. Most of it was equipment to analyze rocks and stuff -- certainly pertinent to Molly’s job, which is why Mandy was storing it in her and Bob’s apartment instead of doing something like selling it. They’d added extra storage, and stocked up on medical supplies. There was no telling what condition their friends were going to be in when they were found. 

Wiishu had just added portable beds to one of the storage containers. There were two beds built in in the bunk room, which would be fine for going out, but it wasn’t going to be fine fitting six of them on the way back with that, so portable beds.

“All ready to go?” She walked down the small hallway into the cockpit, where Mandy was doing a systems check.

“Just about.”

Wiishu dropped into the navigator’s seat, swirling it slightly. This was scary, going out to look for them. Mandy was leaving her job completely to do this, whereas Wiishu could still keep doing her art on the go. It would be awkward, though.

It was going to take them three weeks to get out there in Molly’s ship, since it was so much faster than Jack’s freighter, but who knew how long it was going to take them to find any indication of what had happened or find one of their friends. If they even did find anything or anyone. It was possible a stray asteroid or piece of rubble or something had gotten into an engine of the  _ Septic _ and simply...exploded it.

No, she shouldn’t think like that. They would find them.

\-----

“Hey, wake up.” 

Wiishu had rolled of her bunk before her eyes were even open, and now she saw Mandy looking excited. “What is it?”

“We found their trail.”

It was at this point Wiishu realized that the  _ Foxtrot  _ didn’t seem to be moving any more. “Did we land?”

Mandy nodded, then held something out to Wiishu. “I found this on the surface.”

Wiishu took the metal chunk, turning it over in her hands. Finally, it clicked what it was. “It’s a piece of one of Jack’s engines.” The cover, specifically.

Mandy nodded. “It was just sitting there. A little dusty, sure, but it had definitely just fallen where it was. They landed here.”

Wiishu brushed her fingers over the scorch marks. “Someone shot at them.” She set it on her lap, inspecting the rest of the piece. “Jack could have reattached it -- look.” Wiishu pointed out the various connection points. Most of them were still intact, so it would have worked just fine. “So why didn’t he?”

“Well, they might have been in a hurry. If someone had gotten hurt...” Mandy hesitated. “Bob wouldn’t hesitate leaving an outer cover piece behind if someone’s life was in danger, and neither would Jack.”

“None of them would.” Wiishu ran her fingers over the plating again. “Where's the closest planet with developed medical facilities?”

“It would have been a week away for them.” Mandy frowned. “They wouldn't have made it with a broken engine and someone badly injured.”

“What if they got help? A large ship or something?” Wiishu looked up again. “Could that have happened?”

“Maybe. I hope so.” Otherwise, they were looking at at least one dead friend. “We'll keep an eye out for someone we could ask.”

Wiishu nodded. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was better than no plan.

\-----

Almost as soon as they left the atmosphere, a small light turned on, pulsing slightly.

“A tracker?” Wiishu looked at the display. “Why does Molly have a tracker?”

“According to her ship, she has two.” Mandy pointed at a different display. “The other one is set to alert her of something. There was definitely a ship she wanted to avoid, but it's a proximity thing so I can't really figure out what ship.”

“What's this one, then?” Wiishu asked, looking at all the information. “A... Why does she have a tracker for herself?”

“What?” Mandy glanced over, then raised her eyebrows. “Why would she have a log attached to the tracker?” With a press of a button, a small hologram appeared -- Molly, hair pulled back and a worried look on her face.

“I can barely believe Wade managed to get the tracker on Mark's ship.” Her words were barely louder than a whisper. “There was so much security I'm surprised he even got in the area.” She glanced behind her. “Now we'll be able to tell if he tries to sneak up and kill us.” Molly sighed. “He's started making us do things, and neither Wade nor I like it. We can't just leave, though. Even if Wade could make it far enough, there are guards everywhere. Mark really doesn't want us getting out until he's made his mark on us. Wade says Mark has changed, that he didn't used to be like this. I think he wants to try and save Mark. I don't know if that will make things better or worse, honestly. Probably worse, but if Wade can do it...” Molly sighed. “And if he can't, Mark might turn us into monsters.”

Molly looked straight at Wiishu and Mandy -- well, the camera, really. “I never should have taken this job.”

\-----

Having the tracking device on Molly made figuring out where she was a lot easier. Even if nobody else was with her, hopefully Molly would be able to give them some information.

They were swinging past a desert planet when Wiishu got an overwhelming feeling that something important was down on the surface.

“Let’s land.” Wiishu said.

Mandy looked over, silent for a few moments. “Okay.”

It was a little surprising that Mandy hadn’t given any kind of protest. Wiishu hadn’t offered any explanations for wanting to land, and they were possibly racing against time to find their friends alive, so it wasn’t very logical.

“What’s this planet named?” Wiishu asked, glancing out the window to look at the pale surface down below. 

“Jakku.” Mandy replied. “We’ll need to keep an eye on the  _ Foxtrot  _ so nobody tries to steal it.”

Wiishu nodded, looking down at the surface once again. What was urging her to get to the surface?

\-----

Jack was so tired of arguing with people. He was so tired of sand. He was so tired of Jakku. He missed Wiishu. He missed Sam. He missed the  _ Septic. _ He missed Wade and Molly.

Bob put a reassuring hand on Jack’s shoulder. “We’ll figure out a ride. There’s got to be someone willing to let us work our way back home.”

Jack brushed sand out of his hair -- for the fifth time today -- and sighed, scanning the landing area again. “Nobody’s been willing to do it so far.”

“We don’t exactly look like honest workers.” Bob pointed out, brushing sand out of his own hair. 

Jack looked at Bob and laughed slightly. “Yeah.”

They were positively filthy after walking for almost a day in the desert, especially without any protection against the sun or sand. They were both sunburned, and the peeling skin was extremely painful. Jack’s hair had started to fade after a week here, and so had Bob’s. 

On the plus side, Jack looked like he might actually get a tan. Or maybe he would just end up looking like a lobster again.

“Jack.” Bob said urgently, bringing Jack’s attention back to the landing area. 

A new ship was landing -- it was fairly small, small enough to fit in the  _ Septic _ ’s docking bay, but definitely large enough to hold several people and some basic research equipment.

Also, while most of the ship was plain gray, there were definitely pink highlights on it. Which was odd -- most people didn’t paint their ships pastel colors.

It was probable the ship had all the crew it needed, but there was no harm in finding out for sure.

“Let’s go ask.” Jack said.

Bob nodded, and the two started over to the ship.

Which reminded Jack. He was also incredibly tired of walking in sand. It kept moving underfoot, and he’d tripped a few times on it.

The door to the ship opened, and Jack completely stopped moving before a grin split across his face.

Wiishu.

\-----

“Let me just make sure we got this straight.” Mandy said while Wiishu finished serving the meal. “Mark really is still alive, but he’s evil. Molly is missing, and Wade joined up with Mark so he could find her?”

Jack nodded.

They were on the move again, fortunately, but it seemed Mandy hadn’t told either of the men that they were following Molly’s signal.

“Wade had to get his arm replaced.” Bob added. “That’s probably worth mentioning.”

“Yeah, but we only know that because Mark threw the fact at me.” Jack scowled. “Almost like a trophy.”

“It’s pretty obvious that he’s not the same Mark he used to be.” Bob pushed his glasses up his face. “It was honestly terrifying.”

Jack nodded.

“We don’t know where Molly and Wade are, either.” Bob added. “They could still be in trouble.”

“And Ethan.” Jack nodded again.

“Ethan?” Wiishu asked.

“He helped us. As far as I know, the  _ Septic _ is still in his cargo bay.”

Wiishu nodded. 

“Well, maybe Molly will know.” Mandy said.

“Maybe, but we don’t know where she is.” Bob blinked.

“She’s got a tracker on herself.” Mandy replied. “We don’t know why, but it does exist.”

“Show them the message.” Wiishu urged.

Mandy nodded, pulling up Molly’s urgent voice log from before.

\-----

By some miracle, when asking for permission to land at the base where Molly’s tracker was coming from, someone in the background on the other end gasped.

“Let them in.” It was a young voice, but that was really all one could tell just from hearing it. “That’s Jack and Bob!”

Jack looked confused for a moment, then a grin spread across his face. “Ethan!”

Apparently that did the trick, because they were allowed to land without much more in the way of conversation.

As soon as they stepped out of the ship, though, Wiishu was instantly confused. A blue-haired person in robes was hugging Jack and Bob, talking excitedly, and she still wasn’t sure who he was besides probably Ethan. 

What she was most concerned about, though, was the damage to the base. Scorch marks were everywhere, and that was the least worrying damage mark. Smoke hung in the air, some of the buildings had holes torn in them, and one of the buildings on the far end seemed to be almost completely destroyed. Also, Ethan had an arm in a sling and a limp, the latter of which she only noticed when Ethan started walking them to the main building.

“What happened?” Ethan said. “Nobody could find you. I mean, nobody’s really had time to look, with having to patch up the base and everyone that got hurt, but we didn’t even know where to start looking.” He shook his head. “I’m guessing these two are Mandy and Wiishu, then.” He gave the two women a half-grin, half-smile. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Mark dropped us off on Jakku.” Jack said. “We somehow didn’t die.”

“Cool. Sounds like an adventure.”

“What happened here?” Bob asked.

“Mark attacked. Wade and Molly took down the shield generators, so that’s why everything got damaged. We survived, obviously, and --”

Wiishu held up her hand. “Wade and Molly helped?”

Ethan nodded. “They didn’t seem happy about it, but, yeah, they did.” He frowned. “They didn’t fight us when we locked them up afterwards. Or when we took their lightsabers away from them. Mark fought. He fought hard. He’s in heavy restraints right now, since it was the only way to keep him from trying to attack anyone that got close to him. But Wade and Molly seemed almost relieved.”

They had lightsabers? Why hadn’t Molly ever mentioned anything about it in her logs? Even the secret ones?

“Can we see them?” Jack asked.

“I’ll have to ask.” Ethan shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure who’s in charge of that. Not really sure who’s in charge at all right now, since General Organa got killed in the fight.”

They were all silent for a minute after that, then Jack blinked. “Woah, when did you get a lightsaber?”

“Oh, like two weeks ago.” Ethan grinned, almost bouncing a little in his step as they returned to a non-sad topic. “I’m not really good with it yet, but I did get to fight Mark in the battle. Good thing I had it, too, or he would have sliced me right in half.”

Wiishu and Mandy exchanged an uneasy glance. This didn’t sound like the Mark they had known at all. Why had he changed so much?

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone. Maybe you can help out.”

\-----

Wiishu looked at the meal tray she was holding, then at the guard standing next to her.

“Are you sure you want to do this? You can back out at any time.”

“I want to talk to them.” Wiishu nodded. 

The guard nodded, walking over to the first door. The door to the room where Molly was being kept.

Today, she was allowed to talk to Molly. If things went well, she’d be allowed to talk to Wade tomorrow. They still weren’t sure they wanted Wiishu talking to Mark, but she hadn’t been told no, so maybe that was a thing that could still happen.

“Remember, I’ll be right outside if things go badly, or when you’re ready to leave.” The guard said before the door opened, and Wiishu took a deep breath and walked in.

Molly was sitting on the bottom bunk of the beds, kicking her feet slightly. Well, she had been, but now she was frozen mid-kick and looked at the door.

Her eyes widened.

“Wiishu.”

The door swooshed closed behind Wiishu, and she walked over to the other seat, sitting carefully on the chair opposite her. “I brought you food.”

Molly hesitated, then took the tray and set it next to her. “Why are you here? How did you find this place?”

“Mandy and I found your tracker. And your family let us get into your ship, so we looked around that. And through your logs.” Wiishu paused, even as understanding spread across Molly’s face. “All of them.”

Raw relief washed over Molly’s face, though she still looked worried. “Oh, good. You could still find them.”

“What happened?” Wiishu put her hands on her legs. “Why’d you and Wade help Mark?”

“When he replaced Wade’s arm, he implanted a remote bomb, so if we stepped out of line, Wade would die. It’s since been taken out, but... it was effective.” Molly slouched some as she spoke. “Every time we helped Mark do something before that, it wasn’t really something big, or Wade and I were able to do damage control on Mark and make it less bad than it originally was supposed to have been. Wade wanted to save Mark, and I was scared what would happen if I tried to escape.” Molly groaned. “And it ended up with people dying.”

Wiishu stood and went and sat next to Molly on the side where food wasn’t.

Molly buried her head in Wiishu’s shoulder and instantly started to sob. “We were trying so hard to keep people from dying. Wade even tried escaping Mark, right before the attack here, but that just led to the attack, and Mark ordering us to take out the shield generators, and... I just want to have my old life back. I want to be safe. I want to go out and look at the different rocks on the different planets. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Wiishu put her arm around Molly. “It’s possible. I’ll do what I can to help.”

Molly nodded. “Thank you. That...it gave me my hope back. That maybe things won’t always be this bad.”

“They’ll get better.” Wiishu said. “It’s going to be a lot of work on your part, though.”

“I know.”

\-----

Today, Wiishu was talking to Wade -- and Jack was talking to Mark down the hall. That was what was worrying Wiishu more than anything else. 

No, she needed to concentrate right now. If Wade felt similarly to Molly, then the two of them might be able to start working on their reparations now. Though, honestly, there was no way to tell if that was the truth. Wade hadn’t been the one leaving secret logs.

Wade didn’t look up from his clasped hands when the door opened, but he did glance at Wiishu when the door closed and she was still inside the room.

Then he sat up straight and fully looked at her for a minute.

Then he sighed and slouched in the chair again, moving his gaze to the floor, still silent.

Wiishu walked over to the bottom bunk and sat on it. “I came to talk, but we can sit in silence, too. Whatever you’re most comfortable with.”

Wade looked up slowly, then sighed, still not meeting her eyes. “What is there to say at this point?”

Wiishu tilted her head slightly, then leaned forward. “I talked to Molly yesterday. She told me a lot. Honestly, I’m not sure I can trust either of you right now, but I’m trying to.”

Wade quietly looked up a bit more, finally meeting her gaze. “Alright. I’ll tell you my view of what happened.”

And he did. 

“It seems no matter what I’m doing, I’m betraying a friend.” Wade sighed again, looking at his new robotic arm and slowly flexing the fingers, as if testing to make sure they were real. “I’m pretty sure I’m past redemption by this point, though.”

Wiishu shook her head. “You’ve got a lot of life left. If you really want to leave all this behind, you know Jack and I, and Bob and Mandy, and Molly...we’re all ready to support you.”

Wade took a deep breath, then slowly nodded and rubbed his flesh-and-bone hand across his face. He didn’t say anything more while Wiishu was there, but she left him feeling like he was on the right track. That some day, he would get past this.

\-----

"Mark’s being completely unreasonable.” Jack shook his head, pacing around the room the four of them were sharing. “He acted the exact same as the last time we talked, and he’s in no position to actually do anything to me.” 

“Give him time.” Bob shook his head. “He’s the one that really wanted this power in the first place. It’s going to take a lot more than just him being locked up to make him change his mind. It’s going to take a while. He may never change.”

Jack sighed, coming to a stop. Then a determined look came over him. “No. The Mark we know is still in there somewhere. There’s still hope for him.” Jack took a deep breath, then came and sat next to Wiishu. “There’s still hope for all of them.”

Wiishu wasn’t really sure Mark could ever go back to the man he used to be, but Jack was right. Hope was still there. It was a baby, and it was barely growing, but it was there.

**Author's Note:**

> The story Wade tells Wiishu is "How to Betray a Friend" from earlier in the series.


End file.
